TEHRAN
\nThe crucial Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until the United States lifts its naval blockade on Iranian ports, Tehran said, as a top official warned that a final peace deal remained \u201cfar\u201d off. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, said in a televised address that there has been \u201cprogress\u201d in talks with Washington \u201cbut there are many gaps and some fundamental points remain.\u201d
\n\u201cWe are still far from the final discussion,\u201d said Ghalibaf, one of Tehran\u2019s negotiators in the talks aimed at ending the war launched by Israel and the United States against the Islamic Republic.
\nA two-week ceasefire is set to end on Wednesday unless it is renewed. US President Donald Trump said meanwhile that \u201cvery good conversations\u201d were going on with Iran but warned Tehran against trying to \u201cblackmail\u201d the United States.
\nOn Friday, Tehran had declared the Strait of Hormuz, which usually carries a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and liquefied natural gas, open after a ceasefire was agreed in Israel\u2019s war with Iran\u2019s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
\nThis prompted elation in global markets and sent oil prices plunging, but with Trump insisting the blockade of Iranian ports would continue until a deal is struck to end the wider war, Tehran said it was shuttering the strait once more.
\n\u201cIf America does not lift the blockade, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz will definitely be limited,\u201d Ghalibaf said. Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to be seen since taking power, said meanwhile in a written message that Iran\u2019s navy \u201cstands ready\u201d to defeat the United States.
\nTrump, speaking to reporters at a White House event, accused Iran of getting \u201ca little cute\u201d with its recent moves and warned Tehran not to try to \u201cblackmail\u201d Washington with its flip-flopping on the Strait of Hormuz. \u201cWe have very good conversations going on,\u201d the president said, adding that the United States was \u201ctaking a tough stand.\u201d
\nIran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards warned that any attempt to pass through the strait without permission \u201cwill be considered cooperation with the enemy, and the offending vessel will be targeted.\u201d A handful of oil and gas tankers crossed the strait early on Saturday during the brief reopening, tracking data showed, but others retreated and tracking platforms showed hardly any vessels crossing the waterway by the late afternoon.
\nA UK maritime security agency said the Revolutionary Guards fired at one tanker, while security intelligence firm Vanguard Tech reported the force had threatened to \u201cdestroy\u201d an empty cruise ship that was fleeing the Gulf. In a third incident, the UK agency said it received a report of a vessel \u201cbeing hit by an unknown projectile which caused damage\u201d to shipping containers but no fire. The Indian foreign ministry said it had summoned the Iranian ambassador in New Delhi to lodge a protest over a \u201cshooting incident\u201d involving two Indian-flagged ships in the strait.
\nOn the diplomatic front, Egypt, which has been involved in mediation efforts along with Pakistan, appeared optimistic on Saturday with Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty saying Cairo and Islamabad hoped to secure a final agreement \u201cin the coming days.\u201d
\nTwo major sticking points in the talks have been Iran\u2019s stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium and the future of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TEHRAN The crucial Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until the United States lifts its naval blockade on Iranian ports, Tehran said, as a top official warned that a final peace deal remained \u201cfar\u201d off. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, said in a televised address that there has been \u201cprogress\u201d in talks …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":96566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96600,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96590\/revisions\/96600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}